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History

Approval by the Wikimedia Foundation

The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees has approved its recognition as a Wikimedia chapter on August 6, 2014. The first discussions started in 2005, and the active local team has been doing projects (the pilot program as described in the chapter creation guide) since that date. The most important yearly activity was the organisation of WikiLovesMonuments Belgium & Luxembourg in 2011, 2012 en 2013. Hundreds of volunteers participated in these events: online, and during one of the real live events. We keep an overview with all relevant activities on our own website or here on meta in 'The Illustrated and Annoted Activity List of Wikimedia Belgium'.

These activities enabled the growth of the proposed chapter. This culminated in 2012 when the decision was taken to start the "chapter creation process". Statutes were made, people had the chance to show their support for the organisation, candidate founders and board members were sought, the bank account was opened.

The application was filed with the AffCom in August 2013. The statutes were under review for several months, but end of 2013 the AffCom decided to put the application "on hold" for reasons outside of our reach.

The Belgian community started activities and community efforts to discuss this with the AffCom and the WMF board itself. The chapter candidate founders sent an open letter to the WMF Board. They also increased their involvement in the community by planning Wikimedia events in the coming months.

On 23 June 2014, the AffCom released a resolution to recognize Wikimedia Belgium as chapter. During Wikimania, the Board of Trustees recognized Wikimedia Belgium as a new chapter with a resolution.